Manufacturing Grows In Philadelphia Area
- The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia announced last Thursday, January 21 that manufacturing activity in its region continued to grow in January. The survey’s current indicators for general activity, new orders, and shipments increased notably this month and remained positive for the eighth consecutive month. The survey’s indexes gauging future activity remained at high levels and continued to indicate that firms expect growth to improve over the next six months. Click here to read the full report.
- According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 900,000 individuals filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time during the week that ended January 16, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week’s level. The number of individuals who continued to receive benefits also fell, to 5.054 million during the week that ended January 9 from 5.181 million the week before. The four-week moving average of first-time claims rose while the rolling average of continuing claims declined.
- The number of new homes under construction in the United States increased by 5.8 percent from November 2020 to December 2020 and 5.2 percent from December 2019 to December 2020. The number of building permits issued for private housing increased 4.5 percent for the month of December 2020 and 17.3 percent year-over-year.